I fell apart in her arms, and she let me. Without hesitation. Without judgment. Katie wasn’t afraid of my demons. She fucking owned them.
The morning sun had just begun creeping in through her bedroom window. The smell of the ocean floated in with the breeze. Katie lie sleeping on her side with her naked back facing me.
I was torn between two worlds—a perfect view of heaven from a front row seat in my own personal hell.
I kissed her shoulder and ran a finger down her spine, listening as the softest, sexiest fucking sound left her lips. She rolled over and smiled at me. Her back arched in a stretch, and the sheet fell from her breast, making her nipple peak as soon as it touched the cool air. Out of pure, raw instinct, I leaned forward and bit her there, and she moaned. Fucking moaned. Because I bit her.
My eyes shifted from the teeth marks on her breast to the bite mark on her shoulder to the trail of purple kisses my fingers left on the rest of her skin. Fuck. She must have seen the remorse in my eyes because her hand reached out to cradle my cheek.
“It’s like my body doesn’t want me to forget who it belongs to,” she teased with a grin.
Fuck. Me.
Her words made my dick hard. As if her tits hadn’t already gotten me halfway there. She looked at me with those wide, bright blue eyes and a wave of possessiveness rolled over me. Me. Your body belongs to me.
If there was a better way to start the day, I sure the fuck hadn’t found it yet.
She skimmed her fingertips across her nipple then her collarbone where I marked her. “You branded me.”
“Fucking right I did. And I’m about to do it again.” I threw the covers back and hopped out of bed, not bothering to get dressed because… fuck clothes. “Wait here.” I stopped in the doorway for one more look at her naked body, one more hit of a drug that was the ultimate high. “And if you’re not still naked when I get back, I swear to God I’ll burn every piece of clothing you own.”
I believed him. Sutton would burn my clothes and make me roast him marshmallows in the fire. I pulled the covers up over my body because my naked skin was no match for the crisp morning air. I stared out across the open room, watching the sheer white curtains blow in the breeze and trying to wrap my mind around the fact that there was a naked king walking around my house—a naked king who owned my body. Somewhere downstairs, drawers opened and closed, and cabinets slammed shut followed by a muffled curse word every few seconds. What the heck was he doing?
I started to climb out of bed to make sure he was okay… and not trying to cook me breakfast or make me coffee. Sutton was good at a lot of things, but I had a feeling cooking wasn’t one of them. As soon as I sat up, he appeared in my doorway, golden skin glowing in the sunlight, wearing nothing but a grin that rivaled the Cheshire cat… with a black Sharpie in his hand. Flawless. He was flawless.
He threw the comforter to the side, probably to make sure I had obeyed his orders. His smile faded, and his eyes grew dark. Nobody ever looked at me the way Sutton Thorne looked at me—like he wanted to devour me, like he would die if he couldn’t.
He started at the foot of the bed and crawled his way up, placing a soft kiss on my ankle then running his tongue up the inside of my calf.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
Sutton peered up at me but never moved his mouth from my skin. “Tasting you.” The smooth sound of his voice slid over me, setting every cell in my body on fire. He ran his hands all the way up my legs, stopping at my hips and pressing me into the bed. His mouth was right there, so close to my heat. I felt his breath brush across my skin, and my hips jerked up to fight his hold. He smirked and shook his head. “Always so ready for me.” He ran his finger along my slit. “I’ll be inside you soon.” It was hard to tell if he was talking to me or my greedy hole, but either way, I won. “But first…” He popped the lid off the Sharpie and began writing… on my ladybits.
I stared up at the ceiling and groaned. “Is this payback for the pinky swear? Because this kind of feels like payback for the pinky swear.”
He laughed, then put the cap back on the marker and softly blew on the skin right above my most sensitive parts. I arched my back, silently asking him for more. My need for him was blinding.
His thumb traced lazily over whatever artwork he drew on my skin. “Look at me.” The grit in his voice was sinful and sexy and full of all the things I never knew I wanted.
I pushed up on my elbows and looked at him. He flashed me the panty-dropping grin all the girls in the kitchen never stopped talking about, and I melted. It was such a stark contrast to the anguish they held last night. The sight of it made my heart clench. That grin was mine.
The anguish was mine too. I knew now how Sutton felt when he looked at me the way he did, like he’d kill anyone who tried to take this, to screw this up.
His eyes fell between my legs. “Now here.”
I followed his gaze.
Oh my God.
I covered my face with my hands and shook my head. Sutton climbed up my body and pulled my hands away. “Look at it.”
I didn’t need to look again. I knew exactly what it said.
PROPERTY OF SUTTON THORNE
He threw the Sharpie to the floor and cupped my face in his hands. “I seem to remember something about my name being stamped on someone’s vagina.”
The conversation in the Great Hall. My laundry list of reasons why we could never be together. He remembered it. Something about that made my stomach flip with that feeling girls got when a crush liked their photo or smiled at them from across the room. God, I was so screwed.
“You mean the bruises and bite marks weren’t enough?”
He dragged his knuckles across the side of my cheek. It was gentle and sweet, even though Sutton was anything but those things. “Nothing will ever be enough.”
His leg slid between mine, pushing them apart. His cock brushed my core, and I lifted my hips to meet him. Please. He licked his lips and stared past my eyes, all the way into my soul. “I will never be done fucking you.” And with that husky whisper, he pushed inside of me.
I moved to climb out of bed, but Sutton grabbed my wrist and pulled me back down.
“You don’t get to leave me yet.” The authority in his voice made me wet all over again.
“I’m not leaving. I’m going to clean up.”
He sat up straight and leaned against the headboard, pulling my body with him. “You mean wash me off of you.” He ran his finger along the inside of my legs where the sticky white dripped down my thighs, smearing it into my skin. “You don’t get to do that either. I like you smelling like me.”
I smiled to myself because seconds ago, I’d glanced at his T-shirt on the floor and almost grabbed it and put it on because I knew it would smell like him. I wanted to smell like him.
He reached between his legs and palmed his cock. “I like smelling like you too.” He stroked his length, bringing it back to life. “You’re all over me.”
My eyes zeroed in on the way his long fingers wrapped around himself. My lips parted, hungry to taste him, to lick him, to suck him. I was sore, so very sore. My entire body ached, but I would live the rest of my life sore if it meant I got to have him like this. “Okay. You win.”